Our country

The total area of Russia is a little more than 17 million square kilometres. The population is about 160 million people. The capital of Rus­sia is Moscow.

The greater part of the territory of Russia is vast plains with low mountain ranges and long rivers. The Urals divide Russia into the Euro­pean and Asian parts.

The Volga and the Ural are the longest rivers in the European part of the country. The longest rivers in the Asian part are the Ob, the Yenisei and the Lena, which flow into the Arctic Ocean. The world's largest inland sea is the Caspian. Lake Baikal is the world's deepest lake.

As Russia is a very large country, its climate is very different. How­ever, we can say that it is mainly continental. The Arctic Ocean influ­ences the weather on a great territory of the country. In some parts of our country winter lasts as long as six months.

The European part of Russia is in the temperate zone with warm or hot summers and rather mild winters.

Our country is very rich in mineral resources, especially it is rich in gas, oil and forests, which are exported to different countries on a large scale¹.

From an agricultural country before the Revolution in 1917 our country has become a highly developed industrial and agricultural state. After the Revolution heavy industry has been created; there have appeared such new branches of industry as aviation, machine-building, chemical, auto­mobile and many others. A number of² hydroelectric power stations have been constructed as well.

It is to be noted³ that the first atomic power station in the world began operating in Obninsk near Moscow in 1954, the first atomic ice-breaker in the world was also built in Russia. For a number of years our country played a leading role in the field of space exploration. In 1957, the first artificial satellite (sputnik) in the world was launched by Russia. On the 12th of April we celebrate Cosmonautics Day in the memory of the first space flight carried out by Yury Gagarin in 1961.

The new political system has brought great changes in all spheres of life in Russia. The Russian Federation is an independent state with the president at the head. The president is elected every four years at gen­eral elections.

The political system consists of three branches of power;

1. the legislative branch⁴ is the Parliament that is divided into two houses – the Upper House, that is the Federation Council, and the Lower House, the Duma.

2. the executive branch⁵ is the government with the Prime Minister at the head.

3. the judicial branch⁶ headed by the Supreme Court.

There exist a great many political parties and organizations (political as well as social) in our country today.

Notes on the Text

1. on a large scale – зд. в больших количествах

2. a number of – ряд, несколько

3. It is to be noted – следует отметить

4. the legislative branch – законодательная власть (ветвь власти)

5. the executive branch – исполнительная власть

6. the judicial branch – судебная власть